Stab the Scorpion: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Only to see it wasn't the hero they struck, but a [[Scary Scorpions|scorpion]] or snake poised to strike, or even an actual enemy. Either way, rather than killing the hero, the stranger has just saved their life. Sometimes, the target isn't even a threat, but is used to gain trust, the message being "[[If I Wanted You Dead...]], you would be by now".

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', Marta—one of the chimera allied with Greed—does this to a snake that was threatening Edward. It's also a touching [[Call Back]] to Ed and Al's [[Training from Hell|month stranded on an uninhabited island]]: on the last day, Ed makes the last notch in the tree by throwing his knife through a snake.

* Revy and Dutch from ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' manage to pull this one each other ''simultaneously'' when Dutch is chewing her out for acting [[Ax Crazy|unprofessionally]] and they're [[Mexican Standoff|ideally pointing their guns at each other]] when more Neo-Nazis try to sneak up on them. Both mention they thought the other was really going to shot him/her, though Dutch said he was joking.

* In one episode of [[The Anime of the Game]] adaptation of ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'', Isara looks likes she's going to shoot Alicia. Instead, she shoots through a window and takes out an Imperial soldier on the other side.

* In ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'', after {{spoiler|Miaka runs away from Tamahome out of shame by the pretense that she had been raped by Nakago}}, Amiboshi shows up, raises his dagger, and aims at Miaka.... or rather the huge ass polecat that was behind her.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* [http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/6514922.html Here]{{Dead link}}, a [[Transformers|Decepticon]] is [[Strange Bedfellows|given a gun]] by an Autobot while the latter tries to switch off a Transformer zombie signal. After it's off, the Decepticon shoots - a zombie that evidently didn't need the signal and had gotten really close to the Autobot

* Subverted in an early ''[[X Wing Series]]'' comic. Two New Republic pilots holed up in a cave have been found rather suddenly by a New Republic agent, who holds a blaster on them as they work through suspicions. A pilot [http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/1038/swrstro206.jpg tells the agent] that [[Look Behind You!|there's a predator creeping up behind her]]; she asks if he really thinks she'll fall for that. The pilot tells his friend to reach for his gun, so one of the two has a chance to wing it, if the agent doesn't fry them. The [http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/1452/swrstro207.jpg next page] has the agent [[Badass Back|firing behind herself without looking]], hitting the predator. "I believe you," she says.

* Subverted in the ''[[Sin City]]'' story, "A Dame to Kill For," where {{spoiler|1=Ava appears to have Dwight McCarthy at point blank range and instead aims upward and shoots Manute in the face.}} She then claims mind control so as to regain his already once-misplaced trust. It doesn't work, as evidenced by the last page where {{spoiler|Ava}} has a bullet through her head.

* Happens (almost literally) in ''The Legend of Red Wolf'' by Enrique Villagrin. Jessica Hartmann and her maid are [[Two-Person Pool Party|having sex by the swimming pool]] when Red Wolf creeps up on them. Instead of attacking them, however, he crushes a scorpion that was about to sting them.

* In the ''Inquisitor Ascendant'' Inquisitor Reiker and Gravier [[Teeth-Clenched Teamwork|don't get along very well]] in their search of Gravier's former master who ran off in mighty suspicious circumstances. Eventually —

== [[Film]] ==

* Lampshaded in the German police-spoof ''[[Der Wixxer]]''. The protagonist was trapped in a bathtub and was attempted to kill á la ''[[Saw]]''. He manages to defeat the trap, upon which a suspect (whom the building belongs) enters the room, sternly glancing at the protagonist, approaches him slowly and ominously, pulls up his sleeves, complete with a Now-I'm-Going-To-Finish-You-Off - expression. Then, totally out of the blue, he quips, "Jesus Christ, what's going on here?!" and helps him out of the tub.

** [[Shout-Out|Alluded]] to in ''[[Predators]]'' when Royce stabs a scorpion with his knife.

* In ''[[Resident Evil (film)|Resident Evil]]'', the Red Queen offers to provide a code to let the party escape a lab they're trapped in if they kill Rain Ocampo, who's infected with the T-virus. Rain kneels down and orders the others to accept the deal and kill her by cutting her head off with a fire axe. As she and the Red Queen shout for Alice to do so, Alice raises the axe high in the air and... hits the television monitor the Red Queen is shouting through, cutting her off, and refuses to kill Rain.

* In ''[[The Spy Who Loved Me]]'', Anya pulls a gun on [[James Bond]], only to shoot the top off a champagne bottle.

** Melina's introduction in ''[[For Your Eyes Only (film)|For Your Eyes Only]]'' - She's hunting the men chasing Bond, with a crossbow.

* In ''[[Braveheart]]'', the Irishman is portrayed as a belligerent (and crazy) person in his first scene. In the very next scene, he charges towards the unsuspecting William Wallace... only to throw his sword at [[The Mole]] instead.

{{quote|'''Stephen''': I didn't like him anyway. He wasn't right in the head.}}

* [[Meg Ryan]] does this during an argument with Lou Diamond Philips in ''[[Courage Under Fire]]''. Tragically, {{spoiler|he believed that she was shooting at him, and he shoots her in the stomach}}.

* ''[[The Sting]]'', when a man steps around the corner into an alley and fires a silenced gun, apparently at Hooker. {{spoiler|He kills Loretta, the waitress from the diner, then reveals that she's actually the assassin Loretta '''Salino'', who's been assigned the hit on Hooker and was about to kill him}}.

** Earlier, in ''Ghostmaker'', Rawne (who despises Gaunt and wants him dead) sneaks up on Gaunt while he's sleeping, holds his knife to Gaunt's throat, and quickly brings it up—so he could throw it into the eye of an Ork that was sneaking up on them. Slightly subverted in that Rawne ''would'' have killed Gaunt, but the Commissar apparently having nightmares of Tanith burning convinced him to stay his hand.

* In ''[[Ranger's Apprentice|Erak's Ransom]],'' Will saves a child from a poisonous snake in this way.

* Rennie does this to Wick in ''The Crush''. "Move and you're a dead man." Of course he does move, prompting Rennie to shoot the bobcat about to pounce on Wick from behind.

* In a rare double-sided version, the climax of ''[[The Dresden Files|Fool Moon]]'' had Harry and [[Cute Bruiser|Karrin Murphy]] have been at odds for the majority of the book because Harry kept finding himself suspiciously linked to a series of attacks around the city. Later, they find themselves hunted by two of the [[Our Werewolves Are Different|three kinds of Werewolf,]] and they run into each other, only for Harry to see the more dangerous of the two sorts of werewolf coming up behind Murphy. When he prepares to attack it, she raises a gun and begs him to get down. He doesn't, thinking he'll [[Heroic Sacrifice|go out in a blaze of misunderstood glory.]] When he wakes up after the event, thinking he's dying of a gunshot wound, she tells him that she shot at one of the other werewolves that was behind him and he was only hit on the head, [[Crowning Moment of Funny|and promptly mocks him for being such a melodramatic idiot.]]

* In a [[Sarah Dessen]] novel ''Just Listen'', Annabel gets into a car with Owen, who has a reputation for anger management issues. He takes out a hammer and she starts imagining headlines of her murder when he carefully buckles her in—the passenger seat's seat belt is broken.

* Happens in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', almost literally. Daenerys is given a box from a stranger. She opens it, when an old man hits her hands with a staff, knocking the box out of them. It turns out that the box contained a manticore, a highly venomous, (possibly) scorpion-like creature.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* The opening cutscene of ''[[Devil May Cry]] 2'' has Dante take aim at Lucia with a pistol... then shoot a harpy that was attempting to attack her from behind.

** Dante and Lady also do this to each other in 3 right before going [[Back-to-Back Badasses]].

 

== [[Web Animation]] ==

* In Disney's ''[[Tarzan (Disney film)|Tarzan]]'', the title character is presented with one in regards to bullish rhinos that have forcefully moved into the apes' territory after being driven out of their homes by human civilization. After learning that he purchased large amounts of dynamite to resolve the rhino issue, Jane and the others rush stop Tarzan from doing the deed, which turns out to be blowing up a new section of river. Aware that he could've killed them all if he wanted to, the rhinos accept their new home.

* In ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', an aged Bruce Wayne is about to be attacked by a random criminal when a dog jumps towards Wayne...and attacks the criminal instead. Bruce adopts the dog, and names him Ace. Because when a dog is badass enough to save BATMAN you know he's awesome. A [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] to him, for sure.

* In ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'', Numbah 1 teams up with an adult named Moosk to hunt evil, snakelike ties, and when it looks like Moosk is about to betray Numbah 1 and shoot him, he actually shoots a tie behind him.

* ''[[The Secret of NIMH]]'' sees Mrs Brisby, a frightened mouse, entering a Great Owl's den. At the mercy of her natural predator, she is then additionally stalked by a [[Giant Spider]]...before the Great Owl appears and crushes the spider. Partially subverted in that even after crushing the spider the [[Owl Be Damned]] is still terrifying.

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Index to The Rescue]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]